A cashless Christmas for foreign fishing crews far from home

A second group of Ukrain­i­an crew mem­bers aboard the arres­ted ves­sel Aleksandr Kseno­fontov in Duned­in are at log­ger­heads with employ­ers and have approached the Mari­time Uni­on seek­ing help.

Mari­time Uni­on Gen­er­al Sec­ret­ary Tre­vor Han­son says the situ­ation with the fish­ing ves­sel is a clas­sic example of the prob­lems still com­ing to the sur­face in the fish­ing industry.

Mr Han­son says around 14 seni­or crew mem­bers, believed to be officers, have approached the Duned­in police and the Mari­time Uni­on claim­ing their con­tract has been broken.

An inspec­tion of their doc­u­ments showed their pay had been slashed to a frac­tion of the hours worked, after heavy tax­a­tion under Rus­si­an law and large pay­ments to the employ­er were all taken out of their pay.

“The employ­ers want to pay these work­ers off with $300 for months of work at sea, with the rest of the money com­ing when they return home at some unspe­cified date, which could mean nev­er.”

Mr Han­son says the Aleksandr Kseno­fontov has had ongo­ing issues since being tied up at the Duned­in wharves sev­er­al weeks ago.

“This type of situ­ation is exactly why the Gov­ern­ment intro­duced new reg­u­la­tions in the fish­ing industry, yet it seems some of the industry play­ers are still doing things the old way.”

He says the ves­sel had its first crew leave after a pay dis­pute, with sev­er­al of those crew still in New Zea­l­and involved in the dis­pute pro­cess.

“Now a second group of officers are obvi­ously facing a sim­il­ar prob­lem.”

Mr Han­son says a new crew had been brought in who were onboard the ves­sel, and he would not be sur­prised if a sim­il­ar situ­ation developed with them.

He says the ves­sel was also arres­ted in a sep­ar­ate dis­pute over repair work.

Mr Han­son says the con­cern of the Mari­time Uni­on is that over­seas crews are being returned home with prom­ises of future pay­ment that were impossible to enforce.

“Our con­cern is with some of the dubi­ous prac­tices that may go on in the home coun­try where this labour is recruited.”

He says the “out of mind, out of sight” atti­tude with for­eign crews was still pre­val­ent, with crews involved in dis­putes often hur­riedly sent home before their claims could be inspec­ted under New Zea­l­and reg­u­la­tions.

Mr Han­son says the industry was watch­ing to see how the situ­ation was resolved under the new improved Gov­ern­ment reg­u­la­tions of the fish­ing industry.